kwg Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Why are they always on young children's list? I can see older children- but PK-first/second? I about died today when reading Red Riding Hood to my ds5- "As Little Red Riding Hood walked home through the woods, she thought to herself," I will never wander off the forest path again......, I should have kept my promise to my mother" She was comforted,though, that she had at least minded her manners, and had always said "good morning, " "please" and "thank you" :lol::lol: :001_huh:yes, well. she did have that. The look on his fce was priceless! :lol: And again I was reminded of why I never read them to ds9 until he was older. He loved them starting around 8. So I am curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 That's not in my copy of Little Red Riding Hood. What version are you reading? I'd find another one as quick as you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 http://www.amazon.com/Little-Riding-Trina-Schart-Hyman/dp/0823406539/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332957079&sr=1-1 But in Andrew Lang's version (Blue Fairy book at least), he just ate her up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 That's not in my copy of Little Red Riding Hood. What version are you reading? I'd find another one as quick as you can. :001_huh: I have TONS of fairy tale books and none are like that. I agree with Stripe. There are much better versions out there! We love fairy tales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Which ones do you guys like :lurk5: Like originals? Maybe it is just this story and I need to find another but then I remember reading Cinderella with ds- and the stepdaughters cutting their toes off to fit in the shoe and the description of the blood was kinda gruesome; I know my ds5 would not be ready for that. Is there a safe series to check out maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Well....in Grimms Cinderella, the mother cuts off the stepsister's toes and heals and the prince brings them back when he sees the dripping blood. That's what the originals are like :-0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Don't read Grimms, then, until they're older. I was surprised to read the second half of Perrault's Sleeping Beauty --it doesn't end when he wakes her up! And it turns out his mother likes to eat ice, plump babies. Yikes! But there are lots of other stories besides the gory ones! Are you getting them from the library or buying them? Can you go browse at the library? I've got a lot of collection volumes and some are more gruesome or scary than others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 That is what I mean. Why are they recommended for such young fry? :confused: What the heck message is it sending anyway? :lol: We will cut off body parts to marry?:001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 That is what I mean. Why are they recommended for such young fry? :confused: What the heck message is it sending anyway? :lol: We will cut off body parts to marry?:001_huh: Well, actually, their deception didn't end up being beneficial, right? The truth was discovered in the end, so I'd say just the opposite. I think sometimes kids like the very black and white, good and bad messages. They're kind of appealing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeBlessings Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I personally like the Blue and the Red Fairy books (and the other colors too), even for my youngest who is 4. She doesn't seem bothered by the grim parts. She understands it is fiction, but I wouldn't read them to her if she was sensitive to them. She loves them. We've been reading Little Red Riding Hood and doing related activities for two weeks now. I made some puppets and props for our felt board and she has been retelling the story and making her own versions all week. She thinks it is great fun! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 True! The black/white too. I will admit not trying Lang's for quite a while. I will see, maybe he will like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lillehei Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Something for mom, not kids: Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times by James Finn Garner. Made me laugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 (edited) Originally fairy tales were NOT written for children. Children got ahold of them and liked them, but...children get ahold of a lot of things they shouldn't, so...just because they like them doesn't mean they are what they should have. Waldorf teachers RETELL the Grimms stories and do not READ them to the students. The 1st grade curriculum centers on fairy tales, but...there are adaptions. The FREE African Waldorf discusses WHY they believe fairy tales are the best literature for 1st graders, and offers suggestions on choosing tales other than Grimms. I've participated in a few literature threads lately, and the more I read and think, the less I know. Literature has been something I have always struggled with as soon as I had my boys. My oldest is 25 now and I still don't have this figured out yet. I have no opinions on this and am just :bigear: Edited March 28, 2012 by Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 In Rapunzel, after the prince has his eyes poked out falling into thorns from the tower and Rapunzel is banished to the desert, they finally find each other. She cries and tears fall from her eyes healing the prince's eyes. She then introduces him to their twins. Yes people - the prince did ask her to marry him in the tower, but they were doing a lot more than talking. I too wonder about the whole original fairy tales. They ARE brutal! Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 She then introduces him to their twins. Yes people - the prince did ask her to marry him in the tower, but they were doing a lot more than talking. Ha, yes, in East of the Wind, West of the Moon, the woman has her baby while walking the earth (universe?) in search if her lost love. My favorite, though, is that Scheherezade has three babies at the end of those 1001 nights! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eileen Aroon Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I love most of the dark weird stories (the goose girl fascinated me from a young age). But I am not a dark weird person. If you want the original language and cultural situations that will prepare a child for the great books, don't avoid fairy tales. Some more palatable ones for children are: The Wild Swans Salt Snow white Thumbelina The Frog Prince The snow queen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 Thank you for the link! Interesting reading. ANyone else who wants to read it, their explanation starts on pg 45. Thank you for the list of fairy tales also!- I am going to check out the book for moms too, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I don't want to read sanitized versions, and I agree they aren't really appropriate for younger children. I did lots of folk tales when they were little, but I figured Waldorf's ideas about fairy tales around age seven made sense. I started reading them to my older when she was between 6.5-7. My younger one sat in for some of them. I looked for beautifully illustrated editions that were faithful to Grimm. Pre-K or kindergarten, no. Older first grade or second, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I also encourage you to go beyond the Grimms' grim German tales. Read Perrault's French versions! Read English fairy tales! Read about Scandinavian trolls and tomtens! Read Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Arab, Mexican, Native American, African American (like Brer Rabbit), West African, other African, and any other fairy or folk tale that looks interesting. I've had a lot of fun branching out with my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Thank you for the link! Interesting reading. ANyone else who wants to read it, their explanation starts on pg 45. Thank you for the list of fairy tales also!- I am going to check out the book for moms too, lol. KWG, I go back and read the African Waldorf pdfs whenever I start feeling very confused. Not as my only resources, but one of them. They are WISE people who have sifted through a LOT of educational philosophies to come to their philosophies. The child development pdf goes from birth to grade 12 I think. I'm not in total agreement, BUT, it's worthy, very worthy of being reread EVERY year. And the math is NOT to be missed!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy5 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Well, my daughter loves fairy tales. I decided to buy a book of very short fairy tales and rhymes (each fairy tale are only about 2 pages long) ... but they tell the story in a condensed form. She loves the story ... I have here do her reading questions with those because they hold her interest and they have some moral to the story, still, without being gruesome. I'm all for not changing literature -- but when it comes to very young kids I feel the need to edit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 I would love to hear which one you bought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy5 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I would love to hear which one you bought! It is this one. http://www.amazon.com/365-Fairytales-Rhymes-Other-Stories/dp/1445438542/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2 I found it $3 cheaper at Costco! I almost resisted because I was really focusing on a Charlotte Mason viewpoint and I wasn't sure that it would fit in ... but for a 4 yr old -- it was exactly what we needed to get her interested in the story. We have others and they don't keep her attention like this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I have an old book called Tales of Grimm and Anderson, and read most of them to my kids when they were in upper elementary/jr. high. My kids lovingly refer to it as "The Bloody Book!" Not for the faint of heart (or small children around a campfire!). But definitely a favorite here (for older kids!). Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitofthewomb Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I ordered Sonlights p3/4 when DD was 4 and it comes with tons of fairy tales. I hadn't read fairy tales since I was a kid but I was horrified at some of the stories! I started pre-reading them and being choosy then I just put them away. My DD really didn't seem to be bothered by them but I thought it was just too much! I just didn't remember them being so gruesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I just saw this after I wrote a post about The Bronze Ring in Andrew Lang's blue fairy tale book. These books are on AO's reading list and many other reading lists of good books so I figured we would read them. Ugggh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieuog Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I have to note that I loved "The Bronze Ring" as a child. Lang's books for children are adaptations of stories he thought children would get into culled from important collections of traditional (and faux-traditional) folklore, so of course they're full of offensive stuff: that's just traditional values for you. I think it's wonderful for children to have a glimpse of the worlds that created these stories, of how a piece of 18th-century French whimsy is different from a German folktale is different from a story from the Arabian Nights is different from... It's the interest of social studies plus the delights of fiction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleWonders Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I have a love/hate relationship with fairy tales. I like many of the ones we have read from the library, but I'm not overly fond of some of the originals, especially the Grimm brothers. We have enjoyed when we've read the same fairy tale from various cultures and/or various versions. One book I have on hold that looks promising is The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. I'm thinking maybe some of the background (cultural and history) as well as some of the psychology behind fairy tales might help me learn to appreciate them better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted March 30, 2012 Author Share Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) My library has that book! Thanks! Ds9 loves fairy tales and this is a good reminder to pull them back out. I think he could hear the Lang ones now with no issue. Ds5- he likes Winnie the Pooh, Make Way for Ducklings, Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess. And I like him liking those right now :tongue_smilie:. We will try some of the others too though just to see. I know we got Lon Po Po from a library book sale and this book did not bother him at all. He asked for it over and over. I saw the other thread about the Bronze Ring and subscribed to it too- it is nice to know I am not the only one feeling :confused: sometimes. Edited March 30, 2012 by kwg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I'm reading this one to my 3 year old now :) No blood or gore there:tongue_smilie: I read a bunch of fairy tales to my 1st grader last year. These were quite appropriate for his age. I wouldn't consider the original versions appropriate until the child is around high school age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABQmom Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I'm reading this one to my 3 year old now :) No blood or gore there:tongue_smilie: I read a bunch of fairy tales to my 1st grader last year. These were quite appropriate for his age. I wouldn't consider the original versions appropriate until the child is around high school age. Thanks for those links! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Which ones do you guys like :lurk5: Like originals? Maybe it is just this story and I need to find another but then I remember reading Cinderella with ds- and the stepdaughters cutting their toes off to fit in the shoe and the description of the blood was kinda gruesome; I know my ds5 would not be ready for that. Is there a safe series to check out maybe? I had that one, too. And I spent years feeling off-and-on guilty reading about the girl with the dancing shoes that wouldn't come off and wouldn't stop dancing -- one of the bad things she did to deserve her fate was to think about her pretty new shoes in church, instead of having spiritual thoughts. If I'd had beautiful new shoes one Sunday, I surely would have been distracted! it must depend on the sensitivity of the child. Button hated the Lang's from AO. He was just confused. I have been (inadvertently) desensitizing him with the Free & Treadwell readers. I think the first grade one had the Bremen Town Musicians, in which several animals introduce themselves with laments that their owners are about to do them in ... DH was rather shocked, and only sort of amused. Button was not fazed, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyoflearning Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 My daughter loves 5 minute Fairytales. http://www.amazon.com/Minute-Fairy-Stories-Jane-Jerrard/dp/0785335064/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333090748&sr=1-2 We have Grimms Fairy Tales and DD started reading it. She liked the story she was reading (I don't remember which one), but I didn't feel comfortable with the gore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 It depends on the kids. My kids rather enjoy all the gore and horrible fates. My 8 yo is Disneyfied though, and while the evil doesn't bother her, she just wants pictures of pretty dresses. My 10 yo still likes Fairytales and is old enough now to figure out some of the adult themes. He worked out that Red was actually being warned against men :001_huh:. The 4 yo creepily giggles at the blood. Not sure how I feel about that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candid Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 My favorite is this one: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Book-Fairy-Tales-Classics/dp/030717025X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333106411&sr=8-1 But there are lots of older collections of fairy tales with many variants of the tales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I love this essay by JRR Tolkien on Fairy Stories. Perhaps you would find it illuminating. Andrew Lang's collections are favorites and those were the best when they were younger. My kids went on the read Grimm and it made for some great discussions. Neither of them can stand the sanitized Disney versions of the classic fairy tales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tonyloffredo Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Hello – Tony Loffredo here, :) I was first introduced to fairy tales in the early fifties by my mother reading to me (oops – I’m showing my age), but I cannot remember anything inappropriate about them! May-be all this foolishness came later or may-e I was too young to remember! Kind regards, -Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 If you want to know why the tales are gruesome, you should listen to Dr. Vigen Guroian's lecture A Theological Reading of Grimm's Cinderella. Scroll waay down. There's actually a very important reason for them being like that-they were heavily symbolic. Or you could read The Owl, the Raven and the Dove by G. Ronald Murphy SJ. Dr. Guroian actually reads it and translates as he goes, 'correcting' the parts that were ignorantly mistranslated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I was first introduced to fairy tales in the early fifties by my mother reading to me (oops – I’m showing my age), but I cannot remember anything inappropriate about them! May-be all this foolishness came later or may-e I was too young to remember! Well, the Blue Fairy book referenced here was written more than 100 years ago! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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